5 of our favourite April Fool’s pranks

5 of our favourite April Fool’s pranks

Google, Lindsay Lohan, even President Obama got into the April Fool’s spirit this year, unleashing their prankster selves for a day. Here are our five favourite hoaxes from April 1.

5 of our favourite April Fool’s pranks

Google Nose

Google got into the April Fools’ spirit this year, releasing details of a new feature to add to the user experience. The ‘Google Nose’, as the name suggests, would supposedly let users upload smells, which others could then access through their trusty Google search engine. Describing it as “the new scentsation in search”, those funny Google-ites claimed that smells would be captured through “Street Sense vehicles,” which “have inhaled and indexed millions of atmospheric miles.” Oh, Google.

Lindsay Lohan Jnr

This year’s most searched April Fool’s Prank Award goes to troubled actress Lindsay Lohan. “It’s official, I’m pregnant,” she tweeted, fresh from her appearance in court last week. Lohan is expected to return to the US from Brazil to commence a 90-day sentence in a rehab facility as part of a plea bargain she struck after being charged with lying to police about a Santa Monica car crash. After the perpetually unpredictable Lohan received her umpteenth disapproving Twitter reply (the world is clearly not ready for a little Lohan yet), Lilo followed up with another tweet: “April Fools. Where’s everyone’s sense of humor?”

Kid President

Known for his healthy sense of humour, even U.S. President Obama had a crack at an April Fool’s prank. Busy with its annual Easter Egg roll, the White House tweeted early in the day that the world could expect a “special video message from the president” today. Instead, viewers were treated to a surprise guest to the press briefing room. In place of Barack, the presidential entrance remained empty, until Robby Novak, who plays “Kid President” in the series of popular YouTube videos, entered to holler “April Fools on you all!”

Twttr

Everyone’s second favourite social media site, Twitter announced a new two-tiered service on its official blog on April 1, stating that its free platform would be pared back to tweets written only with consonants. People wishing to use vowels would need to upgrade to the new platform, which would set them back $5 a month. “By eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and ‘dense’ form of communication,” they joked. Imgn.

The Miner Wants a Wife

Television blog TV Tonight broke that the new CEO of Australia’s Network Ten, Hamish McLennan, had been sacked after just two weeks in the job. Apparently failing at garnering ratings because of spending too much time at the Grand Prix in Melbourne, the board appointed Gina Rinehart in his place, who would be introducing new programs including The Miner Wants a Wife, Who Wants to be a Billionaire? and Prospecting with the Stars. It’s safe to say we found this one the most disturbing jive of the year.